JORDAN: Syrian refugees at Jordan's Azraq Camp receive assistance by visiting officials from CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) to help them find aid organisations at the camp

Record ID: 347195

  • Title: JORDAN: Syrian refugees at Jordan's Azraq Camp receive assistance by visiting officials from CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) to help them find aid organisations at the camp
  • Date: 20th August 2014
  • Summary: AZRAQ, JORDAN (AUGUST 19, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS WIDE OF AZRAQ CAMP EXTERIOR OF CARE (COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE) COMMUNITY SERVICES CENTRE SIGN SHOWING LOGOS OF CARE AND UNHCR READING (Arabic and English) 'COMMUNITY SERVICES CENTER' SYRIAN REFUGEES SEEKING ASSISTANCE INSIDE CENTRE CASE MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR, MALIK ABDEEN, TALKING TO SYRIAN REFUG
  • Embargoed: 4th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jordan
  • Country: Jordan
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics,People,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVAELRN5COARLV43A041UMA3DYL3
  • Story Text: Syrian refugees seeking shelter at Jordan's Azraq Camp are being given extra assistance on what services are available to them, thanks to a leading international organisation.
    CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) has recently set up a small centre inside the camp to help link refugees with aid organisation operating there.
    The Azraq Camp was opened last April to help cope with the constant influx of Syrian refugees seeking shelter in the country.
    Set-up to host up to 130,000 residents, the United Nations said the camp could become the biggest for Syrian refugees in the Middle East.
    Located nearly 100 km east of Amman, the camp consists of four blocs, two schools, a central hospital run by the Red Cross and a large supermarket that accepts vouchers from the World Food Programme.
    It currently hosts about 10,498 refugees, according to UN senior external relations officer.
    In planning the sprawling 15-square-km site, donors sought to avoid the pitfalls of Jordan's first camp at Zaatari, hastily opened two years ago in a dust-filled border zone where poor services and mismanagement provoked violent protests.
    CARE'S Management Coordinator Malik Abdeen explained how his organisation operates in the camp.
    "One of the things we work on is the psychological side. We provide psychological first aid to Syrian refugees, especially new refugees who upon arrival suffer from psychological trauma and have difficulty adapting to living conditions in the camp. So we try to deal with this situation, but our main focus is to introduce the refugees to all the services that are available in the camp," Abdeen told Reuters TV.
    Several case managers operate in different parts of the camp to facilitate the needs of Syrian refugees. Their job is to link the refugees with aid organisations that can meet their needs.
    Cases including bread distribution, shelter maintenance, job opportunities and voucher distributions are some of the issues CARE staff deal with on a daily basis.
    Among the other services CARE provides at the camp is helping the refugees find jobs.
    Manal Amour now spends her day entertaining children at the camp, a job offered to her by the center's social services.
    Amour, who has been in the camp for more than three months, said finding work helped her move on with her life.
    "Work has many meanings in life. It helps you find yourself, it also provides an income which can cover some expenses and help the family. It introduces us to different people and helps us forget our worries and problems, it gives us a break. It is better than staying in the caravan mourning the situation we are living in," Amour, a mother of five, said.
    According to figures from the CARE centre, more than 1,500 Syrian refugees have so far applied for jobs at the camp.
    Hasna Jaber, a 60-year-old Syrian refugee, explained how useful the services provided by CARE at the camp are.
    "During a meeting with its members CARE helped me by responding to the needs of refugees and the camps I am responsible of. For example, I am responsible for a specific bloc and others are responsible for other blocs and CARE services as a linking point between us, I tell them for example that there are fifty tents that are in need of this and that. So things makes things easier for us and them," she said.
    "As Syrians we always like to present ourselves as people who like to give. We don't like to ask for help. It is very hard for us to ask for help, very hard," she added.
    Jordan hosts more than 600,000 registered Syrian refugees, almost a quarter of over 2.5 million in the wider region. Officials say there are at least 1.3 million Syrians in Jordan, only a fraction of whom live in refugee camps.
    Jordanian authorities are struggling to keep up with the increasing needs of camp residents and only a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars of international aid pledged to help Syrian refugees has arrived.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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